This document discusses social media, social networks, and internet investigations. It provides characteristics of social media like being a way to share information widely and characteristics of social networks like bringing together people with common interests. It also discusses skills and mindsets for success on social platforms, definitions of the surface web and deep web, and privacy and security considerations for online investigations.
4. Skill Set + Mind Set = Success “ Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress ” Albert Einstein
5. The Social Web “ The Internet has breathed new life into the anarchist philosophy, permitting communication and coordination without the need for a central source of command, and facilitating coordinated actions with minimal resources and bureaucracy” Canadian Security Intelligence Service
6. The Social Web “ When persons holding a particular point of view find themselves in a group of like-minded people, they tend not only to confirm their biases, but also to move toward even more extreme positions, having had their views so strongly reinforced” Merle Rubin “Create Your Own World on the Internet”
7. Internet Investigation Anti-Money Laundering Counter-Terrorism General Law Enforcement Organized Crime Disruption Reputation Management Risk Mitigation
8. Do not be afraid… “ Knowledge is the antidote to fear ” Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. Quantifying the Web The Surface Web contained approximately 56 billion indexed pages as of April 2011 Source: Worldwidewebsize.com Collectively, the 60 largest Deep Web sites hold some 85 billion documents Source: Complete Planet
10. The Deep Web The “Deep Web” is the hidden part of the Web, containing a huge volume of content that is largely inaccessible to conventional search engines , and consequently, to most users
11. The Deep Web “ Deep Web” sites may include: Database content that is only accessible by query Non-textual files Unlinked Content
12. The Deep Web Approximately 95% of the Deep Web is publicly accessible information and not subject to fees or subscriptions
13. The Last Generation Web 1.0 relates to a period of time or development rather than a web “version”. Prior to 2004, the web was made up of mostly static data which was commercial in nature.
14. Web 2.0 In Web 2.0 we see dynamic content, user generated content and new methods of communication and collaboration.
15. Web 2.0 Web 2.0 facilitates interactive information sharing and collaboration such as Social Networks, Wikis, Blogs and Social Bookmarks.
16. Web 2.0 It is an immersive, dynamic experience featuring mashups, alternative reality interaction, mobile web applications and a state of perpetual beta.
17. Web 2.0 – Social Media Creation and dissemination of information BY THE MASSES, FOR THE MASSES. Citizen journalists, “crime reporters”, social activists & media presenters.
18. The Knowledge Age – Web 3.0 In the “Semantic Web”, content will be more contextual and relevant as we teach computers to understand what we really mean and what we are really looking for. Search will be smarter and more personal to our individual needs.
19. Global Distribution of Internet Users Source: Internet World Stats – Sept. 30, 2010 1,966 Million Users Worldwide 28.7% of the Population Have Internet Access Asia 825 million (21% pop) Europe 475 million (58% pop) North America 266 million (77% pop) Latin America 204 million (34% pop) Africa 110 million (10% pop) Oceania/Australia 21 million (61% pop)
21. Fastest Growing Languages 2000 – 2010 Source: Internet World Stats – June 30, 2010 العربية 2,501% Русский 1,825% 中国 1,277% Português 989% Español 743% English 281%
22. Metcalfe’s Law N(N -1)/2 “ The value of a network grows as the square of the number of it’s users increase” Robert M. Metcalfe Co-Inventor of Ethernet
23. Search Engine Strategies Spider based technology is essentially still “dumb” and because search engines cannot evaluate context, unrelated sites (“noise”) are often returned in search results
24. Search Engine Coverage Total number of pages on the Web relevant to a search “ Search Engine A” “ Search Engine B” Pages returned by both engines
26. Privacy and Security “ A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.” Mitch Ratcliffe
27. Browsing History Web browsers download web pages viewed into a temporary cache file When revisiting a Web site, the browser will compare the components of current Web document against the cache file
28. The Browser Cache File When possible, the browser will display document components stored in the temporary file rather that re-download those components A browser’s cache file can be examined and analyzed to determine what sites a user has been visiting and what keywords were entered into a search engine
29. Online Privacy and Security A Web site may permanently record your IP address Combining an IP address with readily available information about your computer system, you or your organization might be positively identified
30. Online Privacy and Security Ensure that when using the Internet as an Investigative Research Tool you have a security plan in place!
31. Research Resources for Online Investigators www.toddington.com/research With links to: The TII Online Research Newsletter Free Daily Research Updates via Twitter Online Investigator’s Checklist™ Online Research Framework™
This slide highlights the point that there is no central source of command for the Internet which is both a positive and a negative as far as online investigation goes. Freedom of speech and user-generated content allows the type of truth and accuracy of information which has never been seen before and there is no-one to regulate that (although the US Government is trying to some degree). The negative side of this is that there is no single point of contact if a person discovers child exploitation images or other content that they wish to have removed from the Internet (particularly if the data is personal to them).
Discuss the Internet as a meeting place for like-minded individuals and the lack of controls in place to stop the propagation of illegal content, actions or groups online. How did pedophiles exchange images prior to the Internet? How did terrorist organizations recruit new members? The world has become much smaller and time travels much faster now that there is instant communication, instant information and the ability to gather and exchange data at the touch of a button. What are the implications for the future of law enforcement as the Internet continues to grow and evolve?
There are very few types of investigation that the internet does not or cannot impact – computers and the internet can be used as storage devices, a tool for planning or executing a crime, and a tool for locating evidence. Proprietary computer systems are still relevant to some degree but information is quickly outdated and it is hugely labor intensive to maintain databases – open source information, while seemingly less organized, can actually be more reliable if you know what questions to ask, how to ask the questions and where to look to find the information you are looking for.
As the mother of a 9 year old daughter, I am often perplexed when I hear other parents stating that they do not allow their children to use the internet. It is, by far, the richest source of information ever available with the kind of diversity and balance that, previously, we have had to search quite hard to locate. The internet is not a scary place and I firmly believe that we should not be teaching our children that it is. Information is power and to be able to control your own information, and to locate information successfully, is a powerful thing. It is a fact that if we teach people how to search successfully, and safely online, to show them how easy it is to find information when they know how and where to look, they are more likely to protect their own information and realize what others can find out about them. We need education, not avoidance to make use of this amazing online world that we’ve created.
The Web has become so large that it is almost impossible to quantify particularly in light of user-generated content. Many blogs are static and many sites are so dynamic that they appear and disappear within a matter of hours. While we may be able to measure additional content, it is very difficult to measure disappearing content worldwide. This becomes much more difficult when we consider the “deep” Web. The surface Web may be somewhat quantifiable, however, information contained with proprietary sites and databases changes continually and is therefore impossible even to estimate.
Discuss the implications of the deep Web in investigations and knowing “where” to ask the questions. Marinetraffic.com shows real-time worldwide marine information and was used recently in an investigation into oil freighters being attacked in the Arctic by a covert Greenpeace vessel. The vessel had “hidden” under cover of darkness and was lost by the Navy ships radar. We were able to locate the ship using this site and direct the Navy to it. The “Deep Web” sometimes refers to flash based content that is not indexed by search engines.
Discuss the implications of the deep Web in investigations. Talk about images, reverse images and sites with no links to or from.
Discuss the implications of the deep Web in investigations.
Discuss the implications of the deep Web in investigations.
Talk about social networks, chat roulette and social media – citizen journalists and the access to “real” information. Talk about the 7/7 bombings and how images were bring transmitted to the web before the emergency services were even on scene.
Explain the concept of user-generated content (also known as Web 2.0) and how this type of content differs from commercial content. How can this type of information be used in an online operation; to identify an offender? To prevent crime? To solve crime? What are the risks to young people? What is the potential for criminal behaviour against online users?
Explain the concept of user-generated content (also known as Web 2.0) and how this type of content differs from commercial content. How can this type of information be used in an online operation; to identify an offender? To prevent crime? To solve crime? What are the risks to young people? What is the potential for criminal behaviour against online users?
Explain the concept of user-generated content (also known as Web 2.0) and how this type of content differs from commercial content. How can this type of information be used in an online operation; to identify an offender? To prevent crime? To solve crime? What are the risks to young people? What is the potential for criminal behaviour against online users?
Explain the concept of user-generated content (also known as Web 2.0) and how this type of content differs from commercial content. How can this type of information be used in an online operation; to identify an offender? To prevent crime? To solve crime? What are the risks to young people? What is the potential for criminal behaviour against online users?
Point out the growth potential in Asia given that still only 17% of population have Internet access. North America shows some of the slowest continued growth (twice as many users now as there were in 2000) and the growth potential, given that 74% of the population uses the Net is rather limited.
There are 463 million English speaking Internet users (first place) and 321 million Chinese speaking Internet users (second place). There are over 130 million Spanish speaking Internet users (third place) and 94 million Japanese Speaking users (forth place). This being said, use among Chinese users is growing 4 times faster than that of the English speaking population. Spanish users are growing almost 3 times faster than English users.
This is a breakdown of the languages spoken by Internet users. Arabic continues to be the fastest growing language among users on the Net with Russian in second place. Chinese is the third fastest growing. Tallying the number of speakers of the world's languages is an increasingly complex task, particularly with the push in many countries to teach English in their public schools. How many people can actually use the global language? David Graddol estimated a total of 750 million L1 (first or native language) plus L2 (second or nth language) speakers of English in his Future of English Report (http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-future.pdf) for the British Council. Braj Kachru's book “Asian Englishes” claims that India and China combined have over half a billion "users" of English.
THE MORE PEOPLE USE A NETWORK THE MORE USEFUL IT BECOMES – CONSIDER THE IMPACT OF THIS STATEMENT ON INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES. How useful would Wikipedia be if only 100 people used it? The fact that millions of people use it means that it is constantly growing and more resistant to incorrect information being posted (as “bad” information will be quickly detected and corrected). Metcalfe’s Law written by Robert Metcalfe who was a co-inventor of Ethernet. The concept is relatively simple in that “the more users the internet has, the more users it attracts and so on…” thereby increasing it’s size exponentially by itself on an ongoing basis. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf%27s_law
Search engines cannot evaluate context and investigators must therefore learn how to build very effective search strings to optimize search results. The use of Boolean and Enforced Term Operators is key as are the Advanced search tools within most search engines.
Consider the implications of a shared office computer where the person using the machine after you (or the officer cleaner!) can see exactly what you have been doing online including the keywords you have entered, the pages you have visited and, depending upon the program used, read your Web-based emails. It is important to ensure that cookies and history are cleared after each use of any computer and temporary internet files are deleted. Firefox allows you to automatically delete “private data” (cache, cookies, passwords, etc) every time you close the browser. IE 8 and Safari allow you to browse “privately” at the click of a button meaning that your browser will not collect any information on your online activities. The purpose of the cache file and cookies is to revisit a page more quickly after an initial visit, saving time and bandwidth, however the security implications outweigh the positives in the case of online investigation.